Tuesday, 30 December 2014

And so to the final post of 2014, my
favourite albums of the year. It was a devilishly tricky
old business ranking them, with positions
changing a number of times as I listened and
re-listened to the shortlist, though the top five were never in any
real doubt. I've featured several of these artists on the blog over the past 12 months (click on the red highlights to check out the original posts and music) and hope to return to a few of those that have yet to grace these pages in the future.

It just remains for me to say a big thank you to everyone who stopped by in 2014 and also to all the bloggers out there who I read, listen to and am inspired by every day. A Happy New Year to you and those you love.

Sunday, 28 December 2014

Christmas - a bit of driving, a bit of
eating, a bit more driving, a bit more
eating, a massively long country walk, yet more
eating, still more driving, still more eating
then one last weary drive. There was also a fair amount of snoozing scattered throughout.

The house is bone-chillingly cold, but the
wood-burner is already roaring away and, as
Viking Moses notes, it's 'Still My Home'.

Saturday, 27 December 2014

Did I miss a meeting? We're in the dying days
of the year and I've only recently bumped
into New Zealand singer/songwriter Aldous
Harding for the first time, despite her self-titled debut LP having been released back in
the summer. Methinks there's something very
special going on here. One to watch in 2015.

Tuesday, 23 December 2014

It's Christmas Day 1961, my second festive
season, but the first at which I'm old enough
to sit up and take notice. I'm clearly having
a ball, while Mum keeps a close eye on me to
ensure I don't become too over-excited. We're
wearing paper hats, meaning the post-dinner
crackers have been pulled. Dad has no doubt
just finished the washing-up. The trusty
family radiogram is probably piping soothing
yuletide vibes into the room, via the BBC
Light Programme.

Charles Brown's 'Please Come Home For
Christmas', was first released in December
1960, but became a US hit 12 months later,
right about the time this photo was taken. I
doubt it made the Two Way Family Favourites
playlist though, more's the pity.

Sunday, 21 December 2014

Friday, 19 December 2014

Inspired by my recent re-discovery of an end
of year top 20 LP chart from 1984, I'm
attempting to forge a similar selection from
the albums of 2014. I'd forgotten how tricky
it is. In recent years I've just produced an
'in no particular order' list for anyone
who's interested and actually trying to rank
each record this time around is proving a
problematic task. I think I'm just about
there, but leaving out so many great titles
is heartbreaking, particularly if I didn't
get around to featuring them on these pages
in 2014.

With this in mind, here are a couple of tunes
from albums that didn't quite make my Top 20,
(though if I made another list from scratch
tomorrow, they might well feature on it) 'The
Soul of All Natural Things', the title track
from the first Linda Perhacs LP in 44 years
and 'How We Be', the lead single from
Sinkane's fifth album, 'Mean Love'.

Wednesday, 17 December 2014

If you are going
to treat yourself to just one 'World Music'
LP with your Christmas money this year, I
would wholeheartedly recommend 'African Gems'
on SWP Records. This isn't Jit-Jive, nor
Afro-Beat or even Saharan Desert Blues.
'African Gems' is a compilation of field
recordings made in Uganda, Congo, D.R. Congo, Chad and Cameroun between 1965-1984, where
droning horns, polymetric xylophones and
percussive soda bottles jostle for your
attention. It's an extraordinary set of recordings,
occasionally verging on the avant-garde
while simultaneously remaining hypnotic and accessible.

Here's a 7½ minute sample, containing brief excerpts from a few of the tracks. Find out more about this remarkable LP here.

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

There's no middle ground with Sleaford Mods,
you'll either like 'em or loathe 'em. After
seven years of toiling under the radar,
suddenly they're visible, possibly due to the
fact that they've finally released a record
that isn't profanity-laden and so can be
played on the radio. 'Tiswas' still hits
hard, just minus the copious effing and
jeffing that litters everything else they've
done. It also contains the best couplet of
2014 - 'Cameron's hairdresser got an MBE, I
said to my wife you'd better shoot me'.

Friday, 12 December 2014

I took a sabbatical from work in 2010 and was able to spend
a great deal of time with Mum during the final months
of her life. When she felt up to it, I'd
throw the wheelchair into the back of the car
and we'd go for a pub lunch, visit a garden
centre or just take a drive in the country.
Increasingly though, the destination for our
outings was the hospital, for tests, X-Rays,
blood transfusions and, ever more regularly,
periods of in-patient care.

Unfortunately, when I think of Mum now, it's
often as she was in those last few months -
unwell, infirm, dying. Luckily though, there are many photos in the family archive to remind
me of how I should really remember her. Take
this one for example.

It's the Summer of 1964, we're on holiday at
Jaywick Sands and I'm a four year old scaredy cat on
the swings, barely moving and steadfastly refusing any offers of a push. Mum tries to
encourage me by going higher and higher
herself, showing me that it's safe. I'm at once excited and terrified, for her and for me. She's laughing, full of fun,
full of mischief, full of life. And this is
how I think of her today, the fourth
anniversary of her passing.

Wednesday, 10 December 2014

A last look at my favourite albums of the
year back in 1984. This was my top ten, thirty years ago.

'Gravity Talks' was Green on Red's debut full
length LP, released in the USA in 1983,
before appearing in UK record shops to coincide with the band's first visit to these
shores. Green on Red were another band that I
saw live many many times and I was delighted to catch up with
main man Dan Stuart once again, earlier this
year (here).

Do I really need to say anything regarding
the inclusion of The Smiths first LP in this
list? I don't think so. Other than to note, perhaps, that it's way too
low down the order.

The were a lot of good, retro-tinged, guitar
bands coming out of Australia in the mid-80s
and The Hoodoo Gurus debut LP arrived as part
of that wave. Albums two and three, 'Mars
Needs Guitars!' and 'Blow Your Cool!', were
probably superior, but 'Stoneage Romeos' is
still a fun ride.

I saw Miles Davis in concert twice during 1984
and the time spent in the same room as this
giant of 20th century music, overshadowed virtually everything
else all year. Hence the high position for
'Decoy', a good late period LP, but, in my opinion, not as strong as its predecessor, 'Star
People', or successor, 'You're Under Arrest'. Great to see this clip again though.

Rank and File operated within the short-lived
Cowpunk genre. 'Long Gone Dead', the second
of their three LPs, is a lot of fun, but is
absolutely not the fifth best album of 1984!

Unfortunately, the nearest I ever got got to
catching the mighty Gun Club in concert was passing a
worse for wear Jeffrey Lee Pierce in the
entrance to Dingwalls one night, as I was on
my way into the venue to see another band.
Mind you, this performance was a pretty cool
thing to witness on tea-time telly at the time. (Somebody tell
Jools that his mic is still on!)

I've no qualms about the lofty positions
occupied by Lloyd Cole's first LP and REM's
second - both terrific pieces of work that still hold up
effortlessly today.
Which brings us to The Triffids, with two albums in the top 10. 'Treeless Plain', was another one of those records that only arrived on a UK label in 1984 following its actual release (in Australia) the previous year - and a stunning debut it is too. With the benefit of hindsight, it's obvious that there are serious omissions from this list and erroneous
inclusions in it, but if I had to make the
top 20 again today, the number one would be
the same. I've watched this clip a few times
over the past couple of days and still
struggle to make it through without becoming emotional. David McComb - gone, but never forgotten.

(Addendum: A wider look at the full sheet upon which my Top 20s LPs of 1984 are listed, reveals a 'late addition' scrawled in the margin - and what a belter it is. The Nomads are still rockin' today, thirty years on.)

Saturday, 6 December 2014

Towards the end of 1984, I and the rest of
the staff at the record shop in which we
worked, each put together lists of our top 20
favourite 45s and 33s of the year. I recently
rediscovered my original handwritten copy and
wrote a little about my singles selection
here. Today I'll look back at the bottom half
of my album top 20.

1984 was an ominous year for Madness, with
Mike Barson announcing his departure from the
ranks. Their music had gradually moved away
from the early 'Nutty Boys' sound and I
particularly liked (and still like) the
darker elements of 'Keep Moving' and its
successor 'Mad Not Mad'. 'Neville-ization' by
The Neville Brothers was a tight little album,
recorded live at Tipitinas two years earlier and pre-dating the
band's, Daniel Lanois produced, success. 'New
Sensations' is an oft overlooked Lou Reed LP,
which, along with 1980's 'Growing Up in
Public', I played an awful lot at the time and continue to enjoy.

All of which brings us to The Go-Betweens, a
band that I had the opportunity to see in
concert more than once, but, for many
reasons, never did. A major regret. Here's
the much missed G.W.McLennan, with 'Bachelor
Kisses'.

I got into Jamaaladeen Tacuma via his recordings with Ornette Coleman in the 1970s and followed his solo career for a while into the 1980s. Unfortunately, while the playing on 'Renaissance Man' is undoubtedly top notch, it's a record that sounds very much of its time and isn't one I can listen to now.

'Born in the USA' also has production values that are very 1984. It was a massive LP in that year and continued to be so in 1985, but although it contains some great songs that I still enjoy in a live context, I don't return to the record very often these days.

In addition to the records I was listening to, my top twenty also reflects the concerts I attended during that period, the next two entries being good examples. I must have seen The Violent Femmes half a dozen times in the 1980s and any one of their first four albums is deserving of your attention. 'Hallowed Ground' is only bettered by 1986's 'The Blind Leading the Naked' in my opinion.

True West weren't around for very long, splitting in 1987, in fact I think I might have even caught the only two London shows they ever played, early in 1985. 'Drifters' is too high in this list. It probably shouldn't have made my top twenty at all. It's a very good LP, but not a great one. It does, however, contain one bona fide corker in 'Look Around'.

'Trap Door' is too high as well. It's another good LP (mini album actually), but not a patch on T Bone Burnett's fantastic self titled LP, which came two years later.

And so to Rain Parade, another live favourite. On my handwritten draft, I've mistakenly written 'Emergency Third Rail Power Trip', their fine LP from the previous year. I must have realised my error though, as I stapled an addendum, 'Explosions in the Glass Palace', to the sheet. This makes more sense. 'Explosions...', another mini-album, was actually released in 1984 and features the Paisley Underground classic, 'No Easy Way Down'.

This short series concludes next time with my remaining 11 favourite LPs from 1984. Yep, I said 11.

Friday, 5 December 2014

New music from Animal Collective's Panda Bear. 'Mr Noah' is currently available as the title track of an EP and will also appear on his forthcoming LP, 'Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper', scheduled for release in the second week of January.

Thursday, 4 December 2014

What an awful week. First Bobby Keys, then
Ian McLagen and today, news that Nick Talbot,
also known as Gravenhurst, has passed away,
aged just 37.
Here's a short film about Bristol and the
impact that the city had on his life and
music, which was uploaded to Nick's YouTube
page just a couple of weeks ago.

Tuesday, 2 December 2014

Post 1982, I was never much of a New Order
fan, odd tunes have grabbed my attention here
and there over the years, but generally their
appeal has somehow passed me by. I thought
I'd be happy if I never heard 'Blue Monday'
again, but, in the last week alone, I've
bumped into two sweet versions of the tune.

Hannah Peel recently uploaded four
interesting covers to her YouTube account,
including 'Blue Monday', the others being
'Tainted Love', OMD's 'Electricity' and
'Sugar Hiccup' by The Cocteau Twins. They're
all absolutely charming and deserving of a
few minutes of your time. Check them all out
here.

I only heard Låpsley's delicate music for the
first time this very morning, thanks to Drew
over at Across the Kitchen Table, so can tell
you virtually nothing about her, but while
clicking around a few of her tunes (try this one to get the idea), I found that she too
has a nice reading of 'Blue Monday' in her
back pocket.

Monday, 1 December 2014

A big high-five to Swiss Adam over at Bagging Area for pointing me in the direction of the new Jane Weaver LP, 'The Silver Globe'. Two minutes into the featured track, 'Argent' (think Stereolab jamming with Neu), I was clicking around and buying the whole album - I've played nothing else all day. I could bang on about how good I think 'The Silver Globe' is for half an hour, or you could go here, to read a track by track commentary by Jane herself, while streaming the whole bloomin' record! What are you waiting for?

Don't take my word for it though, here's a taster, the Hawkwind sampling, 'The Electric Mountain'.